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Pick Up This Tiny Hammer to Bust Into Bourbon & Banter's Most-Instagrammed Cocktail

The most famous of the cocktails at Bourbon & Banter is the Pompadour. The hands-on cocktail begs to be destroyed with the small watch hammer that is offered up with the cocktail. Since humans are naturally destructive, we're all over this. So, suffice it to say, if any of your Snapchat friends have been to the speakeasy in the basement of The Statler, you've seen a snap of this baby being smashed.

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In charge of the entire cocktail program inside Dallas’ famous Statler Hotel, Hilla oversees the bar programs for the four food and drink destinations within the hotel. From breakfast sips at Overeasy (like a green bloody Mary, a refreshing twist on a classic) to intensely flavored, experiential cocktails at Bourbon & Banter, his imagination can do it all—and the inventive drinks look as good as they taste. The Statler's basement speakeasy requires a password, and

Get into 2 new Dallas-area speakeasies (if you can remember the code)

Outside: A wood-paneled wall opposite a phone booth in the subterranean level of the Statler hotel.

Inside: A den of mirrored swank, open nightly, where Kyle Hilla's playful cocktails keep a mix of hotel guests and locals entertained. On weekends, it's more of a club, but the time to go is on a weeknight, when you can punch a code on the adjacent phone and swing that wood-paneled wall open yourself for hairstyle-themed creations like the Pompadour, a variation on an Old-Fashioned whose brûlée cap requires the tap of a small hammer (provided) to enjoy.

the cocktails at the statler's New speakeasy, bourbon & banter, are totally over the top

It's only been open a couple of weeks, but B&B is already a bit famous for its Pompadour, a bourbon cocktail with a brûléed garnish that needs to be broken in order to take a sip. But the rest of the cocktail menu is equally over the top.

Downtown Dallas' iconic Statler Hotel, which is under renovation, will open this fall with a flexible venue space and five new restaurants and bars, headed up by local chef Graham Dodds. The development has partnered with Dallas-based Epic F&B, LLC to concept and operate all hotel food service, including managing the restaurants, bars, catering, ballroom/event space, and room service.